It seems like yesterday and yet it was August 9, 378 A.D., with terrible heat enveloping the air on that afternoon like so many others. I remember the scent of dry grass mixed with the warm wetness rising from the ground. The cicadas singing incessantly under a relentless sun and a gentle breeze. Seeking relief, I took refuge in the shade of the tall trees along the riverbank savoring a sweet clover, freshly picked.
From that position I watched the Barbarian Goths on the other side of the river.
While observing their crossing of the rivers, which were our borders at the time, I often watched helplessly the tragic scene of young children became lost and drowned.
And even today after more than 1,500 years, the story of the refugees is repeated….
The Roman Emperor Valente allowed them to enter in our empire, more and more of them arrived.
The Goths, with their nomadic and rough lifestyle, posed an increasingly unmanageable challenge. Many of them ended up as slaves, others enlisted in the Roman army.
It was a tactic we knew well: separate them to weaken their group power, distributing them across the immensity of our vast empire.
This strategy wasn’t enough for neutralize the threat. The emperor imposed increasingly strict, severe, and discriminatory measures against the Goths.
The pressure grew more and more every day, but never did I imagine that it would be the beginning of the end of our empire.
The Roman Emperor Valente, after seeing the intimidation from the Goths grow, decided to respond with violence.
The two powers clashed in the city of Adrianople (the actual city of Edirne, Turkey), with an unexpected result.
Emperor Valente made the mistake of moving roman warriors in the middle of the day, during a scorching summer. This mass movement created a cloud of dust that, warned the Barbarians of the impending clash, eliminating the effect of surprise.
The Goths demonstrated greater strategic skill and better efficiency, winning against the Roman forces. Many Roman warriors, scared of the Barbarians, surrendered and gave themselves up to their enemies.
Romans in those years made no effort to understand the social and cultural dynamics of Goths.
On the other hand, an approach based on dialogue, understanding, and respect for cultural differences could have fostered stability and cooperation between the two forces…
In GEMELS we promote, day by day, various initiatives aimed at stimulating participation and involvement among collaborators and external partners, claiming that integration, mutual understanding, investment in employees and the stakeholder quality are key to business success and sustainability.
Many countries in the world have devoted years to studying the history of the Roman Empire, an era when we were the masters of the world and influenced the course of global events. The goal of knowing history is to understand its successes and failures, avoid repeating the same mistakes.
